This idea is similar in some ways to part of the HTTP-NG content
negotation mechanism, in the idea of having profiles which can be
accessed by reference. NG takes things quite a bit further, as it has
much more sophisticated requirements for negotiation, some of which are
driven by features like content negotiation, others of which come from
security requirements.
If people are interested, I'll post the relevant chapter to www-talk
separate from the rest of the spec.
Simon
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(defun modexpt (x y n) "computes (x^y) mod n"
(cond ((= y 0) 1) ((= y 1) (mod x n))
((evenp y) (mod (expt (modexpt x (/ y 2) n) 2) n))
(t (mod (* x (modexpt x (1- y) n)) n))))